Saturday night was a start-studded trip down memory lane for University College of the Fraser Valley Basketball fans as well as a glowing glimpse of the future as the UCFV's men's and women's teams held their annual alumni games during this year's Homecoming celebrations.

In both sides, the future came out on top, with the women stomping the alumni 80-40 and the men answering with a hard-fought 83-78 victory over their counterparts. The closest the alumni women got was within two points with the score 6-4. The current version of the Cascades then rolled off a number of runs including 15-0 and 32-4, the latter covering the last minutes of the first half and the opening minutes of the second.

As usual, Jamie Born led the scoring race for the Cascades, tallying 16 but it was point guard Kalisha Reid, whose 11 first half points took the alumni out of the game, who picked up Player of the Game honours for the winning side.

Also impressive for the Cascades was the play of rookie Deanna McRae who tallied 12 points. For the alumni, clearly conditioning was a factor in this fun affair that saw a few alumni comparing photos of their kids while sitting on the bench.

Boys being boys, the men's game got very competitive very quickly with no one willing to give anything to anyone else as the Cascades scratched their way to the surprising 5-point victory.

The victory was surprising for two reasons. First, the amount of talent on the alumni team, which stands as a testament to the enduring quality of the UCFV basketball program. Second, the Cascades were missing three of their best players due to injury as Jamie Vaughn, Brad Van Dolah and Lee Jackson had to settle for trash talking from the bench.

The Cascades picked up the slack on offense and played great defense and team ball to come away with both bragging rights and the Alumni Game championship trophy. Jason Reeve and Jeff O'Brien both scored 14 for the Cascades, leading a total of six players in double figures. Rookie Brian Smith took Player of the Game honours for the Cascades, scoring 12 points for the winning side, many of the coming in a decisive 7-0 run in the second half that gave the lead back to the Cascades, this time for good.

Alumnus and Fraser Valley basketball legend Randy Nohr led the alumni, scoring 18 of his 21 in the second half, many of the spectacular, spinnorama, pull-up three-pointer on the break in-your-face variety. Despite Mike Lee's 17 points in support and Pat McKay's 13, the Alumni couldn't overcome the intense defense of the Cascades, and all out hustle of veterans Brent Sedo and Mike McClaverty, who each tallied 10 points, though many of their contributions don't end up in the box score.

Both results are encouraging for Cascades fans, as both teams continue to prepare for the upcoming BCCAA season where both teams have high hopes. Up next for the men's team is a date with the UBC Thunderbirds of the CIS on October 11 at Columbia Bible College, where Alumni Pat McKay and Pete Wauthy hope to exact some revenge on the Cascades. Come on out and support the Cascades as they represent UCFV and Abbotsford.